Why a.girl.IRL?

My name is Rebecca and I’m a “girl” in real life (IRL) just like many of you. I created this blog because I love computer games, particularly computer RPGs and MMORPGs and want to talk about them as much as I want to play them. I’ve been involved in online RPGs since the beginning of Ultima Online and have since played the original Everquest, Dark Age of Camelot, a bit of Asheron’s Call, Asheron’s Call 2, a little Anarchy Online, and a lot of Everquest 2. Currently, I’m still playing Everquest 2 and have just begun a foray into Guild Wars.

My single player RPG history started out with a dungeon crawler game on the TI99/4A computer called Tunnels of Doom. Once I got my first IBM compatible PC, I played the Magic Candle and also started the Ultima series with Ultima VI. Since then, I’ve played numerous games including Planescape Torment, Daggerfall, Baldur’s Gate 1 & 2, Icewind Dale, Divine Divinity, Diablo 2, Sacred, Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 1 & 2 and Tactics, and part of Fallout 3.

There are also many games left in my to-play backlog, so I’m definitely not running out of games anytime soon!

So why did I name my blog a.girl.IRL? Back when I was playing Ultima Online, one of the most popular questions to female characters was “R U a girl IRL?” In those days, people didn’t really believe that real women were playing these games, so they seemed to feel they had to question. Being a roleplayer, I was irked by the question because I didn’t think it was any of their business! Oddly, people still seem to believe that real women are a rarity in online games.

Well it turns out that there are a lot of real women playing and loving computer games, but even nowadays when there are a lot of “girl gamers” in every gaming genre, it seems that the companies still mostly target young males as their primary market. This blog will have plenty of topics of interest to gamers in general, but if it ever seems to get too “girly” at times, we’ll you’ve been forewarned!

I have run tabletop RPGs that were split down the middle between dudes and ladies. My wife and the daughter of a friend play in a group I run in Dark Ages Europe after the fall of Rome and before the rise of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. So, seeing the makeup of girls IRL logging on to slay orcs, giants, dragons, and demons isn’t much of a shock to me. Game on, Becky!

Yep, it’s definitely better than it was back when! There was a very popular thread on the Xbox Live forums not long ago about female gamers, and many of the guys there were in shock that there were so many women playing games…and not just games like my pretty pink rainbow teddy bear and whatnot!

Thank you! Please feel free to link it if you would like. I did take a peek at your blog as well, and will definitely be spending more time there. It’s fun to discover new (to me) gaming blogs, and other gamers to connect with on Twitter. 🙂

I know I asked this in another reply, but what games are you currently delving into aside from EQ2? And on a related note, is EQ2 worth trying now that, as I understand it, there is a F2P version, or does it suck and just waste your time?

Since I answered your games question in the other post, I won’t repeat it here, but I’d say that EQ2 is very much worth trying depending on what it is you’re trying to get from the game. There are such a huge amount of things to do in the game that it’s impossible to do them all! I’m always struggling to decide between adventuring, crafting, questing, RP, house decorating, socializing, events, and whatever else I’m forgetting. 🙂 I don’t know what the RP is like on the F2P server though as I primarily play on Antonia Bayle. The biggest complaint I’ve read about from new people is a lack of people to group with at lower levels, but I think that’s not as much of an issue on the F2P server as it might be on the subscription servers. I tend to solo most of the time due to RL schedule and frequent afks, so it hasn’t been something that has bothered very much with my lower level characters. Plus, I have a super-fantastic guild that allows me to be as casual as I often need to be!

Wow, you took me way back when you mentioned your Texas Instruments TI99/4A 🙂
That was also my first computer and more importantly my first video game system!
I never of Dungeon Crawler the closest thing I had would have been Hunt the Wompus but that was more of a puzzle game. There was some good games for that old system. Munch Man, Demon Attack, Car Wars and Parsec were some of my favorites.
Very cool site you have going here!

It was my first video game system too, unless you count a couple of those electronic games like Simon that were dedicated just to that one game. I remember Hunt the Wompus! That thing *always* got me…always. One could have nightmares about that wompus creature. /shudders

You’ve reminded me that I need to pause playing games for a while and get this site updated again! 🙂